i am and you are, too...

Today we gave the surprise party for the November boys, Bernard and Lou whose birthdays fell on the same date and Jhay. Unfortunately I was on my major when the girls surprised them with their cake and gifts. We all get the same gift for our first birthday as a part of TL, a framed collage of pictures taken during the first semester. Every member writes a short note at the back of the frame. Really sweet. After my majors (mythology, and afro-asian lierature) I went to T-spot to hang out for a bit. There was a piece of chocolate cake waiting for me. I found NJ with some of the girls including Cinder. The others went to their classes. Everything’s normal, I supposed. I didn’t see him yesterday and I missed him. So I wrapped my hands over his shoulders and kissed him in the head. He held my right hand and played with my fingers. We stayed that way for sometime. Then I sat beside NJ and ate the cake. He paid me the money he borrowed last week. Perfect, ‘cause I’m running out of school-allowance for the week. He told me he wasn’t feeling well. I put a hand over his leg hoping it would comfort him. I needed to go home early because I had to prepare my notes for my poetry defense tomorrow. After half an hour, NJ and I left school together.

Tomorrow will be my prelim exam in major 7 which is creative writing. We’ll have our defense for the poems we’ve written. I am not a good writer. I have a poor vocabulary. Don’t get me wrong. I understand and speak the English language just fine and so I thought that’s enough. So I took English as my major. I didn’t know the subject will be that complex. But I’m having fun, and I’m learning a lot. I just hope my masterpiece (if you would even call it that) will be good enough for my prof who happens to be the head of the English department. So after a week’s worth of revision here is my free verse poem that I will present tomorrow.


I Am and You Are Too

I am that child…
Don’t ask me where I come from, for I don’t know.
I am the proof of someone’s failure.
Abandoned to create a hell of my own, for them to be free from theirs.
I am that child who tags on your pants.
Giving you a mastered look that will measure the depth of your humanity.
Either you pay for my performance or get rid of me artistically.
Be that the case, do it fast. I don’t have much time and others are waiting for me.
I am that child who enters the house of worship.
Not to seek salvation, but to deliver judgement.
I am the cosmic justice, a bitch-slap on your face so hard it will make your head spin.
I am that child and you are, too.

I am that boy sitting atop the sea wall.
Looking at the horizon where the sun cast its orangey hue.
Forming nameless faces, and memories I do not have.
Love, life, liberty, strangest things to me.
For I am that boy deprived of all that.
But a boy can dream even of golden dust, can’t he?
He can sing songs from his heart. Would you listen to him?
Or let the sound swiftly fade till you are stirred in sham silence?
I am that boy who sees the world for what dreams may come.
I am that boy, and you are, too.

I am that man, who tends to stop dreaming as time pass.
Learning to build walls that will crash the next Trojan horse.
I am that man dying to succeed.
If failure finds him first, that man will weep.
Weep like that boy, whose dreams are still elusive.
Weep like that child forsaken by a broken promise.
I am that child, that boy, that man.
I am and you are, too.
Good luck to me. BWAH!

Artwork from Joe Phillips